Homefront Review - Xbox 360

Game Description: Homefront is a controversial game ten years following the economic collapse of the United States. North Korea has set in place an occupational force where you join the resistance and reclaim your homeland.

Homefront Review

THQ's first volley in the attack to create the next great shooter franchise offers up a scary what-if scenery that deftly utilizes familiar sights of Americana in a burned out war-torn landscape and a brutal enemy. It's just a shame that the single-player game is so rooted in old-school design sensibilities. The multiplayer, on the other hand, is dead on for fans of Call of Duty who want something familiar, but still a little new.

The Pros

Great multiplayer

Some intense large-scale battles

Excellent variety of vehicles and weapons

The Cons

Incredibly over-scripted

Reliance on cheap effects like endlessly respawning enemies

Incredibly short single-player campaign

Homefront Review:

THQ has been unleashing a monster of a hype machine for Homefront since the game was first announced. The company is clearly attempting to set Activision’s Call of Duty and EA’s Medal of Honor in their sights, with the game’s mix of near-future, military-themed combat and effectively scary premise of what-if the North Koreans invaded America in the 2020’s. Unfortunately, merely desiring to mix it up with the big boys doesn’t equate to success.

Oh, Home on the Front

Homefront comes complete with an extensive back story that quickly explains how America could possibly be invaded by a foreign power. Largely basing the US downfall on the very-real economic recession, the 2027 setting for the game is realistic enough to make the plot line more than a little unsettling. Korean forces manage to violently take over major cities and small towns, and the game focuses on one pocket of the rebellion forces.

Starting off in Colorado, the ultimate goal of the game is to join up with the army in San Francisco to stage a major offensive against the Greater Korean Republic’s occupation there. You take the role of an Air Force pilot who is captured by the Koreans, then rescued in a daring escape by a group of American guerillas. Why you were specifically rescued is only actually explained well into the game, when the skills of a pilot are needed for their daring plan to drive back enemy forces.

Through the whole game you’re pretty much a standard, military action hero. The story was penned by John Milius, who wrote and directed Red Dawn and the original Conan the Barbarian, and was the screenwriter for Apocalypse Now. Just the same, aside from the overall setting there’s nothing here you haven’t seen before. The characters are mostly stereotypes—especially the player character, who is a nearly faceless soldier who never speaks and only follows the orders given to him. Homefront isn’t very long—maybe six hours—and the game just sort of ends after a huge set-piece firefight.

Homefront is really just a series of events, as if it was designed to be a movie that focused entirely on big, explosive scripted sequences. At times, this works great. Many of the battles are tough and intense. Other times, the gameplay just feels trite and predictable. Part of the problem is that Homefront is completely linear. The game blocks you in with cheap tricks like endlessly respawning troops and invisible barriers.

The few stealth levels are effective, but all you’re really doing is waiting for another member of your group to tell you when to move or stay hidden. As long as you do exactly as told, there’s no challenge at all. Still other times, you’re left to fend for yourself against overwhelming odds, while the rest of the team goes off to do something else. There are also vehicles, such as tanks, humvees, and a helicopter, which breaks up the action. The helicopter, however, is particularly unrealistic and able to bash against walls like a pinball.

Online Surprise!

AI is surprisingly good though. Both friendly and enemy forces act in a manner that makes the action feel like a chaotic battle most of the time, instead of all the bad guys shooting at you constantly. The Goliath RV tank is great as well, since it relies on you to target enemies before unleashing hell on them. So, without a doubt, the single-player game has moments of greatness, but the overall experience is too mired down in antiquated design standards.

On the flipside, the multiplayer is excellent. The maps offer a great sense of variety and scale amidst the bombed out American landscape, and taking over map points in old farm houses, burned-out Hooters, and other familiar locations is just a lot of intense fun. The game offers up team deathmatching and a CTF-variant at first, but as you rise in rank, more modes are unlocked. Even better is that as you gain experience with the various classes, you’ll unlock new weapons, special abilities, and vehicles.

While none of this is new, Homefront offers a few interesting tricks. One distinction is the use of RC ground and aerial vehicles. You can remotely fly attack drones and helicopters for air strikes, or ground-based attack bots, in addition to driving or hitching a ride on tanks, humvees, and other vehicles. Initial progression is quick to get you going, and slows down just enough after that to keep you addicted.

Back and Forth

Homefront is definitely a game divided. The single-player game is entertaining in bursts, but far from great. Short and full of cliché and dogged linear design, it’s mostly fun while it lasts, but not at all noteworthy. For multiplayer fans, however, Homefront offers a great alternative to Black Ops and Killzone 3, with a surprisingly polished online experience.

Comments are Closed

I got the game for my grandkids to play together like all other games, But they could not play together on same game. Multiplayer would not allow both gametags to join in playing together. we tried everything like inviting other player to join and everything else, but no dice. Has anyone else have this problem? is there something we are doing wrong. I can't believe they make a game a single player game, it makes no sense, This in itself makes this game a waste of money when the household can't play together. This games sucks, because all I hear now is fighting in the house,' IT'S MY TURN, GRANDPA HE WON'T GET OFF', Is this what I paid for?

It makes me sick that people deny that the events on this game can happen. I hate to break it to you, but they can happen. In fact the socialists are already invading the U.S. just all the Liberal and Democrats do not see it and are being brain washed. I bought this game and will never sell it, since it is so truthful. Plus I love the writer of the game, who wrote the story to one of the greatest movies of all time Red Dawn.

When i saw the review, i didnt want it anymore. The graphics looked like crap and seemed like it was going to be alot like their first one. But now that ive seen the multiplayer, i think i want it again.

Short campaign but very interesting, enjoyable and challenging worth a replay at least once. Multiplayer is great very similar to Call of Duty but I liked the Battle Points that you earn and the vehicle load outs were nice. Team Death matches are longer and you feel like you do more playing than waiting. Wish there was a little bit more customization but overall very pleasing on the multiplayer level. Single campaign 3/5 Multiplayer 4/5.

So where is the negative point for having to pay 5 dollars more if you don't buy the game new just so you can progress past lvl 5 in the multiplayer?

I mean thats not like what some games like ME 2 did with DLC, thats extra stuff that gets added to the game. What Homefront is doing is locking you of from something already on the disc. Its just wrong.

roflmao who wrote The Cons- Reliance on cheap effects like endlessly respawning enemies really? why are they letting COD junkies write reviews. Homefront is a great game storyline may be soft but the multiplayer supports it enough. This game already has sold 2 million that being Kaos studios is doing a fine job on improving their servers also unliiike the COD series where ive only seen 1 patch to fix the quick scoping epidemic of criers.

What i have ready for the the most part is true about the game they did manage to balance CoD and battlfield very well but the problem i have is the serves the are garbage you cant have a group join a room without the group getting split (not on oppiste teams) differnt rooms or game modes for that matter and if you do manage to get in a room you may only get to play 2 or 3 rounds before your system freezes (usually happens to half the room) my group and i have had it happen simaltancely several times and the only answer we get from THQ is we are working on it so if you wont a game that plays well but takes 30 min to get into a game then go buy homefront a -1 out of 5 cause the severs are trash

Bought the game Thursday for $60 at Fred Meyers. Got home and beat it before my kids went to sleep. Graphics, movement dynamics, controller configuration and plot are all sub par to COD or even Killzone in my opinion. What really kills me is that I spent two days and a whopping 6 hours trying to get on a multiplayer game with no luck. And now I can't get a refund. A three hour game is not worth $60 nor is "Be patient, we will eventually fix the problem" a valid excuse. Would you buy a car that will drive to your house but not start again for a couple of weeks?

Im surprised only a handful of people are talking about the Xbox freeze profile corruption and the mutliplayer connection issues. The game really is fun to play. But after 5 days My game froze up and the only way i can play now is on anoter account with the free month of xbox live. Lots of poepl ealready brought this game back. Its been 11 days and still people can't play the game they paid 64 dallors for. If they don't get the game fixed pronto and release some free DLC then NOONE will be buying HomeFront 2, and that's a shame since it is a really fun game.

well in their defense creating a good game with polish on it that is generally well received by the public is a subbstantialy difficult challenge factor in making an a.i. that meets the oh so high expectations of people who would be lucky to even program their own tetris clone throw in ever changing engines (e.g.Havok) sticking to a cannon storyline weekends, holidays, sickdays, long days, shortdays, slowdays, frustratingdays, and fridays you have very little time and money left over to add on more levels and o.m.g. if these levels just don't fit the expectations of the internet critics (by the by they do knit pick) we are blaspheming infinity ward or people can fly or whoever the internet recently decided was the pinnacle of progress that will always hold a special place in their heart (for at least 10 seconds) but then you have to go back through and adjust difficulty enemy designs plotlines and by this time you had better have come up with a semicompetant multiplayer or the world as a whole rejects you (whats up vanquish) but either way you make it through all this and have hammered out the glitches and have a final product worthy of a solid review score the publishers see the final product and reject it and at that point you have to go through and fix all the problems and needless to say it goes on for a very long time people get very tired and over time you just need to accept some flaws and be content with the product of many peoples blood (exagerated) sweat (real) and tears (so many tears). directed at commentators would never try to out smart anyone on g4 you guys rock

This game was lucky to get 3/5. Hell, go to homefronts web page and look up "freeze". For tens of thousands of players there is a bug that freezes your xbox right after the kaos logo screen is done(really poor timing for them). I am one of these people that bought the game 9 days ago and only got to play 3.5 online matches before the bug kicked in. I had to play on my friends account just to see what I was missing and I think it is good that all of these people can't play because I don't think their servers could handle the extra load. Anyone on here praising this game would change their mind if this bug happened to them. Amature hour poorly copying ideas from everyone else.

"Homefront" has become the video game equivalent to Mayor Carcetti from "The Wire": It promised a fresh new single player experience with an intriguing story. A new day for shooters. Instead it became just like everything that has come before it, with the same old reliance on multiplayer.

this game rocks for the online play man don't let the three out of five fool ya! the sound quality is amazing the drones and guns and perks and tanks and copters and and and tee hee hee! the campaign i quit but i did the same with black ops i and bad company i think they all kinda blow in differant ways but tis multyplayer is wild and brings me back to the days of battlefield modern combat accept up to date graphics and weapons which you will need to be proficiant with every class over time to do well. no running the board with an smg all the time or you will get sniped from a mile away. get this game learn not to be lame! oh and i do have space rabies! lol!

people really? who cares about a script. the multiplayer is awesome or it's not. finally a game where you have to learn to use every gun. i love all my cod brothers screaming about the campers guys it's called counter snipe!?! the drones are sweet but not indestructable the heli's and tanks heck yeah! your tears of rage warm the coldest part of my black heart! 3 out of 5 was unfair the mechanics are just too good. the audio on my bose home speakers is mind blowing. i love cod and rally thought you were too kind to medal of honor what a piece of doo doo that was. you are slathering over anything cliffy blaaahhzinnsky makes and coo coo for co co puffs about crysis 2? did you play the same demo i did? the lag the crappy animations buggy frame rate what a crysis all right. well whatever you all say homefront is here to stay 375,000 units on it's first day sold out all over the place here in jersey so go play crummy ol bad company and we'll keep the cool stuff to ourselves. oh and mag devs could take a lesson on how to expand a battlefield if any of them still have a job after that hunk of junk. now having spewed all that venom allow me to say thank you to all the devs for all the tireless work and effort. making a aaa or even a good aa is no easy task and whether i like your games or not i do respect you. just as my gaming brothers and sisters. as a disabled person i directly benefit with lots to do and a great way to escape my crippled body. on a set income though i really hate buying a broken game. boy i need a nap i am rambling. i hope too see you shooter fans on the homefront battle field it really is the coolest game to come out in quite awhile. just skip the campaign it does blow but if online shooters are your thing then this game is a must have! peace!

people really? who cares about a script. the multiplayer is awesome or it's not. finally a game where you have to learn to use every gun. i love all my cod brothers screaming about the campers guys it's called counter snipe!?! the drones are sweet but not indestructable the heli's and tanks heck yeah! your tears of rage warm the coldest part of my black heart! 3 out of 5 was unfair the mechanics are just too good. the audio on my bose home speakers is mind blowing. i love cod and rally thought you were too kind to medal of honor what a piece of doo doo that was. you are slathering over anything cliffy blaaahhzinnsky makes and coo coo for co co puffs about crysis 2? did you play the same demo i did? the lag the crappy animations buggy frame rate what a crysis all right. well whatever you all say homefront is here to stay 375,000 units on it's first day sold out all over the place here in jersey so go play crummy ol bad company and we'll keep the cool stuff to ourselves. oh and mag devs could take a lesson on how to expand a battlefield if any of them still have a job after that hunk of junk. now having spewed all that venom allow me to say thank you to all the devs for all the tireless work and effort. making a aaa or even a good aa is no easy task and whether i like your games or not i do respect you. just as my gaming brothers and sisters. as a disabled person i directly benefit with lots to do and a great way to escape my crippled body. on a set income though i really hate buying a broken game. boy i need a nap i am rambling. i hope too see you shooter fans on the homefront battle field it really is the coolest game to come out in quite awhile. just skip the campaign it does blow but if online shooters are your thing then this game is a must have! peace!

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